Essay Exert.

An exert from an essay I'm writing at the moment about the effects of the internet on Cinema:

In 1999, the 'mocumentary' horror film The Blair Witch Project was released. In the build up to its launch, a website was created containing clues in the form of documents, and posters to slowly form the elaborate hoax behind the film, generating a large amount of interest surrounding its production. It could be argued that the success of The Blair Witch Project is entirely based on its online marketing, causing it to have a cult following even before its release. Not only did the website have seventy-five million hits in its first week, according to Jane Roscoe, the website “created a community of The Blair Witch Project fans, who used the websites to communicate with each other and participate more broadly in virtual networks”(ROSCOE, 2000:1). This shows that as well as advertising the film, the website created a sense collective interest which was a fundamental part of the film's success. From this website, individuals began making dedicated fan sites in order to piece together the 'mystery' of the Blair Witch, display trailers of the movie and to communicate with other enthusiasts. The film is one of the first examples of the movie industry making use of the internet as a way of promotion and, in the case of The Blair Witch Project in particular, to create a whole world of interaction outside of the film itself.

Another notable film to use viral internet marketing tactics was J.J Abrams Cloverfield (2008) which, like The Blair Witch Project, created an interactive collection of clues and information on the internet, regarding the content of the film. The production and release of Cloverfield itself was shrouded in mystery from the beginning with an ambiguous teaser shown during the trailers to select viewings of the film Transformers (2007). After this, fake websites, companies and products began to emerge on the web that all linked somehow to the mysterious, unnamed film. For example, a iced drink product called Slusho appeared with a full website (www.slusho.jp) that gave clues about the content of reality surrounding Cloverfield. Slusho has since turned up in other productions connected to Abrams such as TV Series Fringe. This type of promotion using fake entities to send the audience on a trail is commonly called an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) because people are encouraged to delve into fabricated set of events.